11/9

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A hard frost is expected tomorrow night. We'll have to cover 2 beds in plastic again, jug out the lettuce and chard, and heavily mulch the fig tree.

We couldn't get the oven in the cook stove hot enough to bake. Rachel read over the manual, and yesterday took the panel off the oven side of the stove to clean out ash over the oven. There was a huge buildup of ash on top of it interfering with the draft. We cleaned that out, and sealed every joint in the stove pipe with fireproof caulk. It looks like it's worked, because the oven is already at 350 degrees.

The next thing on the list for increasing the efficiency on the stove is to replace the firebox door gasket. The fireproof rope can be bought in a roll at the hardware store.

We ordered the extended roof brackets to help support the chimney as it has some play in it. It's possible a good gust could tear it off. They say no additional support for a chimney under 5' is necessary if using a support box - but the chimney shouldn't be able to wobble like that. It's locked tight into its socket in the bottom of the support box, but the sheet metal at the bottom of the box is not that heavy gauge and is allowing the chimney to move.

A hawk perched on the run yesterday, and all the guineas hollered at it. All of our birds right now are too big to be bothered by a hawk. It eventually flew off.

4 eggs yesterday. Everybody laid. 2 today - Goldie and Claudia.

Light rain on and off today and cloudy skies. Will be much cooler tomorrow.

We got the insulation finished in the addition ceiling this morning, and cleaned the kitchen. The girls' room is much warmer.
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